Performance Summary

Here is a table with full test results, so we can proceed to our performance summary diagrams.

The first pair of diagrams shows the advantage of the Radeon HD 7790 1GB over the Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB and the gap between it and the Radeon HD 7850 2GB.

As we can see, AMD developers and marketing folks have hit the target precisely. The Radeon HD 7790 is exactly halfway between the HD 7770 GHz Edition and the HD 7850 in terms of performance. As for specific numbers, the HD 7790 is an average 32% ahead of the HD 7770 GHz Edition across all games whereas the gap from the HD 7850 is about 30%. AMD should have released such a card long ago to fill in that gap in its product line-up.

Now let’s see how the Radeon HD 7790 compares to the default Radeon HD 7850 when clocked at 1220/6640 MHz.

Our overclocking is quite rewarding, the Radeon HD 7790 being close to the next step in AMD’s product hierarchy. It is only in games that need more graphics memory that the increased clock rate can’t help bridge the gap, just as expected.

Now here’s the same pair of diagrams for the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost: in comparison with the ordinary GeForce GTX 650 Ti (on the right) and with the GeForce GTX 660 (on the left).

So, the boosted GTX 650 Ti is 22-33% ahead of the ordinary version, depending on the graphics quality settings, and falls 12-14% behind the GTX 660. Thus, the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost is closer to the GTX 660 rather than to the GTX 650 Ti. It is no wonder that it can beat the GTX 660 when overclocked:

The next diagram compares the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB and the Radeon HD 7790 1GB, the latter serving as a baseline.

The two cards belong to the same product class, yet there’s a twofold difference in their memory amount and a $20 difference in price. Anyway, even if we don’t count in the low performance of the Radeon HD 7790 in certain games due to the lack of graphics memory, the GTX 650 Ti Boost is an average 18-33% faster, depending on graphics quality settings.